The Vegetable Man

Happy Birthday to Rick in Portland... May you live to 120 in ever-increasing wisdom.



(To dedicate a future Table Talk, send an email.)


 
As presented two weeks ago, your Table Talk is now in L'Chaim mode.

The suggestion is this:

At some point during the Shabbat meal, pour everyone their favorite beverage for a l'chaim.

But ask them not to drink until after you finish the story. Make this a ritual every Friday night, and your family will look forward to it.


One of the best books I have found full of true stories with Jewish themes is called Stories My Grandfather Told Me. The publisher has granted me permission to excerpt these via email, but not on a web page.

This week's story is called “The Vegetable Man”.

It begins like this:

The yeshiva of Rabbi Shlomo Luria, known as the Maharshal, was located above a vegetable store.

This store was owned by a man called Reb Avraham, a quiet, modest man who kept to himself. The store was also his home.

One night, the Maharshal heard Reb Avraham learning out loud a very deep passage in the Talmud and explaining it thoroughly.

Apparently, this modest shopkeeper was a great Torah scholar!
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If you would like to receive a the full story, please join the email list or send me an email, seinfeld  (at)   jsli.org





Question for your table - What's more important, wisdom or good deeds?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - Want to make your Table Talk rabbi happy? Like it, tweet it, or just forward it to someone who might enjoy it.

Excerpted and adapted with permission from Stories My Grandfather Told Me, Vol. 4, © 2001 ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications. All rights reserved. Get the book here.

Warm Heart

Happy Anniversary this week to Joel and Lisa! Wishing you a lifetime of bliss together.
(To dedicate a future Table Talk, send an email.)

As presented last week, your Table Talk is now in L'Chaim mode.

The suggestion is this:

At some point during the Shabbat meal, pour everyone their favorite beverage for a l'chaim.

But ask them not to drink until after you finish the story. Make this a ritual every Friday night, and your family will look forward to it.

The best book I have found full of Jewish-themed stories is called Stories My Grandfather Told Me. The publisher has granted me permission to excerpt these via email, but not on a web page. If you would like to receive a copy of this week's story, "Someone Else's Property", please join the email list or send me an email, seinfeld  (at)   jsli.org

This week's story is called “A Warm Heart”.

It begins like this:

When Rabbi Moshe Feinstein underwent open-heart surgery, he searched his deeds to find the reason for his suffering.....

And ends like this:

May we all learn to be so sensitive to other people's feelings. L'chaim!

Question for your table - how do you think he felt when he remembered the childhood incident?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - Want to make your Table Talk rabbi happy? Like it, tweet it, or just forward it to someone who might enjoy it.


Excerpted and adapted with permission from Stories My Grandfather Told Me, Vol. 4, © 2001 ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications. All rights reserved. Get the book here.

How Ethical Are You?

Over seven years ago, I launched this weekly blog at the encouragement of a friend in California "to give me a story to tell my kids at the Shabbat table." This week, a new feature.

Kids love stories, and they love true stories even more.

What we have found works best is this ... at some point in the meal, pour everyone their favorite drink for a l'chaim - tell them not to drink until after you finish the story. Make this a ritual every Friday night, and your family will look forward to it.


The best book I have found full of Jewish-themed stories is called Stories My Grandfather Told Me. The publisher has granted me permission to excerpt these via email, but not on a web page. If you would like to receive a copy of this week's story, "Someone Else's Property", please join the email list or send me an email, seinfeld  (at)   jsli.org


Shabbat Shalom

PS - Want to make your Table Talk rabbi happy? Like it, tweet it, or just forward it to someone who might enjoy it.

How D'ya Like That?

In memory of my bubbie – Yehudis bas Alexander – whose yahrzeit is tonight.

Bubbie's 90th Birthday

In honor of my grandmother’s seventh yahrzeit, one of her stories.

She loved stories, and she loved learning.

Until the end of her life, she read newspapers and listened to lectures and talk shows, always trying to learn something new.


And when she did learn something new, she used to exclaim, "How d'ya like that!"

Now to understand her story that I'm about to tell you, it would help to recall The Jazz Singer.

I'm talking about the great Al Jolson original.

It was the first talking picture and uses the transition from silent to talking as a metaphor for the immigrant's transition from Old Country to New World.

You may recall that the struggle is between the young Jolson who wants to sing popular music and assimilate into American culture, and his father, a umpteenth-generation orthodox cantor.

This dialectic is a snapshot of the two kinds of Jews during that period (1880-1920).

There were the religious Jews who had to struggle to hang on to their Judaism - such as keeping Shabbos in a culture that expected them to work seven days a week.

Then there were the less committed Jews who were less uncomfortable with the great melting pot.

Bubbie's world: the West Side of Chicago, 1911.

A community with all kinds of Jews.

Her parents were the latter kind of Jew. Chicago was their kind of town. They could do what they wanted, eat what they wanted, and still speak Yiddish to all their friends.

The music stopped, however, when grandma came.

I.e., Bubbie's bubbie.

Her father Alexander and her uncle Arle brought over their mother from Ukraine.

"Once my bubbie came," Bubbie reminisced, "There was no more driving on Shabbos.

"We had to walk all the way to my grandmother's apartment every Shabbos."

Try to imagine her telling that at age 90 in a listful way that made you think you were talking to the little girl who found this new rule restrictive and inconvenient.

As far as I know it was a few blocks. But in her memory, it was a trek across the Sahara.

So I asked her, "Bubbie, why did your father do that? Why did he stop driving on Shabbos?"

"I guess he was afraid to when his mother was around. I guess he respected her."

"Do you think he was doing a mitzvah?"

"I suppose he was. I never thought about it that way before. How d'ya like that."

For your table - When should a child (of any age) do something for their parent even though they don't want to?



Shabbat Shalom

PS  - Want to make your Table Talk rabbi happy? Like it, tweet it, or just forward it to someone who might enjoy it.


__________________
Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld
Jewish Spiritual Literacy, Inc.
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